Not Quite Vintage

2009 in pictures

I am participating in an e-course designed to help one reflect on the past year and prepare for the next. One of the first exercises is to visually look over the past year, whether by looking at your calendar, your blog posts or your Flickr photos. I started by taking a look at my crafty photos in Flickr photos and thought a mosaic would be fun to make (and it seems lots of other bloggers think so too). Before I started I really thought I hadn't accomplished much crafty goodness this year, so I started with 16 photos, then added another row, then another column and another until I 25 photos to share with you.

1. Cup Half Full Apron for Renee, 2. warm and cozy scarves, 3. ten crochet stars, 4. November block for Darci, 5. MacBook cover, 6. string quilt blocks for Sandy, 7. baby log cabins for Valerie, 8. spiderweb quilt block for Sam, 9. drunk love quilt block, 10. PTQB Circles, 11. lacey scarf close up, 12. benjamin's quilt, 13. Stephanie's spiderweb block, 14. Michelle's block, 15. erins april block angle, 16. stephanies april block angle, 17. more coasters, 18. pantry - after, 19. PTQB Spiderweb, 20. PTQB Katie's Block, 21. stripey crochet tote - bottom, 22. in bloom clutch, 23. clothespin embroidery, 24. patchwork belt, 25. dishtowel crochet rolls

 
I do have to thank Kate from See Katie Sew for putting together the Pieced Together Quilting Bee and all the Bee participants for all the quilt blocks. The fun fabrics, patterns and the deadlines kept me crafting when I really didn't feel extra crafty.

BTW, the course I am taking is great and I highly recommend it if you are into that sort of thing. I am just on the first lesson, but I have loved everything I have read by Laura of More In You Life Leadership Coaching and her Clincher course helped me choose my word for 2010. More on that soon.

Happy New Year!

warm and cozy Christmas scarves

Merry belated Christmas all - I am finally getting around to posting some of the holiday goodies I crafted for my family this year. In my family, pretty darn big family, everyone gets gifts. My Momma never believed in picking names, she wanted to watch every one open each and every present they got. At times I was more wrapped up in trying to figure out how I was going to buy/afford to buy presents than the wonderful Christmas spirit she believed in. I get it now, but didn't always. So, when I started crafting gifts for my family it was more out of necessity than desire and now it is seems everyone looks forward to finding out what I decided to make for them, so even if I wanted to take a year off from my handmade Christmas, I can't :)

Remember when I said my pretty darn big family? Well, that means a lot of handmade gifts. I have found that it is easier to make one thing for everyone than make different gifts (at least in sets, like variations of one thing for sister, another for nieces, another for nephews etc.). Its just easier to juggle. This year I settled in on fleece scarves. For those of you who have been reading for a while you might remember all the fleece I bought on major sale the day after Christmas last year - this is what I bought it for. That said having the forethought to know what I was making since last Christmas didn't mean I wasn't scrambling around this month trying to finish them.

I personalized each scarf with a monogram (goodness, I was actually surprised all the guys liked theirs - or at least they faked it well) and the girls got a bit of coordinating fabric trim on the edges. Best part about the edges was all the fabric came from my stash. Yay. They turned out warm and cozy - I still have one to finish up for myself.

In the photos, you see an orange suitcase. This is one of my favorite gifts I received (more on the others later). It was from my friend Renee (the one I made the apron for). And I LOVE it. It is pristine inside and was accompanied by some vintage Christmas glassware and some plastic letter. I wonder what will end up making its home inside?

cup half full apron for Renee

Today I celebrated Christmas with one of my dearest girlfriends. We have been friends for almost 12 years now and it is one of those rare friendships where you feel safe and confident at all times, where you can not see each other for a while and feel like no time has passed when you get together. Life has been crazy for us lately and it was so nice to make time for each other and just have a girls day. We had lunch, shopped for makeup at Ulta and sat in Starbucks enjoying coffee and hot chocolate. It was perfect.

Earlier this week I finished up her Christmas present - a cup half full apron from Anna Maria Horner's book Seams To Me. I purchased this fabric (Morning Call from Hoodie's Collection for Quilting) last winter because I knew Renee would love it - love the roosters. I really like how it turned out - roostery, but not over the top. She loved it.

Can I tell you a story about this apron. I finished it Thursday and needed to get the marks I traced onto the fabric so I would place the pockets in the right place. I grabbed the stain remover from the counter by the washing machine and sprayed... until I realized it was it was bleach clean up spray. Seriously. I threw it into the washer right away and washed it on cold. It looked okay but the darn chalk marks were still there, so this time I made sure I had the stain remover and sprayed away and washed again. They came out and the apron looked pretty good. After it dried I could tell very faintly on the pockets that some of the yellow was a bit lighter than the rest, but it really looked a bit more vintage than wrong. So I ironed it and wrapped it for Renee. Whew, present saved!

I did tell her the story and we laughed about it together. Stuff like this seems to happen to me all the time.

holiday mantel

It is beginning to look a little like Christmas around here! Just a little - actually just the mantel, but that is a step in the right direction. Last night I was able to finish my crochet star garland and I am in love with it! 

Tonight when I got home from work I pulled out my favorite pencil Santas and some thumb tacks and went right to work. Now that I look at the pictures I realize that the garland is uneven, but oh well :) Most everything else typically lives on the mantel and to make things a bit more festive, I added some red and green ornaments to my green McCoy planters. The fireplace screen and tools were my grandparent's. I cherish them (actually I cherish everything of theirs that was passed down to me). They never get used, my fireplace is gas and I really don't like using it and wish the previous owners hadn't converted it.

 

This weekend I hope to do more holiday decorating - two trees actually, one at my house and one at Pop's. Lots of decorating to do... and lots of crafting to finish too.

Thanks to The Royal Sisters for the wonderful Grandma Twinkle tutorial. If you haven't checked out the tutorial yet, you should and there is a Flickr group too. The instructions are incredibly simple and addictive. I have actually memorized the pattern and hope I get a chance to make some more - I am thinking of making ornaments out of them and use them when wrapping presents.

warm bread for a cold and busy weekend

What is a girl to do on a cold Saturday morning when she has extra ripe banana's sitting on the counter and there is a waffle shortage going on? Make banana bread of course. I pulled out Momma's old fashioned recipe - it isn't at all healthy, but extra yummy. It is one of those tastes you always remember and other renditions just don't hit quite the spot even though they are just as good and surely more healthy.

I had enough ingredients for three batches and it made eight nice sized mini loaves. Enough for Pops and I to enjoy and even have a few loaves to share and a couple to freeze. Mmmm.

After the banana bread making I spent a few hours at work. Yes, I just said I spent time at work on Saturday. Crazy. I am not used to being this busy (a big implementation happening over the next two months), but I am and on top of it all I have jury duty this coming week. Not perfect timing for work, but I am actually looking forward to the change of pace and a little time to read my book. Is that wrong? Saturday also included some shopping and a few hours spent with my Pop's. He even grilled for me in the below freezing chill. 

Today I have been crafting up a Christmas gift storm. By the time I shut off the sewing machine for the evening, it was too dark to take pics. None are finished yet, but I am making progress - yay! I will share pictures as I complete them.

I also started crocheting together my stars. I thought ten would be enough for my mantel, but I guess I attached them too close together and need to make four more. If I succeed at completing a couple tonight, maybe I will have garland to decorate my mantel with by Wednesday.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Have you been Christmas crafting too?

three tree block

My November block for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee is complete and in the mail just one day late... that is pretty good considering the month of November went by like a crazy, busy blur.

I am so glad I decided to take the time to work on this today. You know how after a really hectic day it is just so easy to sit on the sofa a veg for the evening? That is what I really wanted to do today, but there was this little twinge inside that said "do something creative tonight, it will make you feel better." That little twinge was right - I feel relaxed and accomplished... and now I am going to sit on the sofa and veg after I finish this post.

November's block is for Darci. She requested a Tree block for an unofficial Christmas Tree quilt. She supplied lots of lovely green and red fabrics - none of which were actually Christmas themed fabrics, but all together you definitely get the holiday feel from them. I had so much fun making this block. I love sewing tiny pieces/strips of fabric together so I I pieces two string trees, one tall and skinny and one short and stocky. In between I had fun with a few triangles. I think this is one of my fabric blocks I have made for the bee. I hope Darci likes it.

Check out some of the other cool trees in the Pieced Together Quilting Bee - they are all lots of fun.

This block has me wanting to find time to make lots of fun Christmas crafts and decorations. I am not sure if I will get to lots, but hopefully I will fit in a few in the next couple weeks. Up first is the crochet start garland I started a week or so ago. I have 8 stars done, just a few to go before I can string them together and decorate the mantel.